Fairmount Ridge Castro Valley hikers 2008

What a Year for a New Year

Karin Kallmaker Cheers & Chocolate

It’s still five days to 2009, but it’s time for a New Year, isn’t it? Everybody knows somebody who is looking for a new job. We’re going to get a new start with a new president, but in the meantime we still have the old one. The year end mutual fund statements are going to hurt more than the last, and even tougher than the near-retirement boomers realizing they will have to work more years now are the near-college teens realizing their college funds aren’t worth a fraction of what they hoped. Read More

Hello Again, Jamie and Val – “Happy New Year Too”

Karin Kallmaker Making Up for Lost Time, Short Stories

Cover, Making Up for Lost Time

Today Bella Books is releasing a new short story by me that features the characters Jamie and Val from Making Up for Lost Time. It’s really cool – I wrote the story a little over a week ago and now it’s “published” in eStory form. You can get a copy of it by buying an eBook of a Bella or Spinsters Ink book between now and January 5. Read More

shelf of Karin Kallmaker's books in chron order

The Nostalgia of Books

Karin Kallmaker Craft of Writing

My younger child is eleven this past October, which means we moved into this house eleven years ago. At the time, I carefully unpacked all my books from the old house and arranged them on the shelves in the closet of my new office. Since then, my name appears on the spine of another nineteen books. Ten have been translated to other languages. I’ve contributed stories or essays to at least twenty-five anthologies. Read More

Feelin’ Better Every Day

Karin Kallmaker LIFE + STYLE

Office_of_the_President-elect

After the outcome of Proposition 8 it was hard not to go back to not hoping. What was hardest was that for months after the Supreme Court ruling I thought Prop 8 would pass and that it was another useless exercise. As the election approached, and so much change was in the air, I thought it wouldn’t pass — I hoped. And was disappointed one more time. Read More